The Word from the Streets - February 5, 2003

I believe that this street meal story is going to be focused around our very own Durga. When I pulled up to Kashi Atlanta, I was so excited that Durga was there. This was her first time going out with us on a Wednesday. I was excited simply because I love her so much...that's all. Little did I know she would have such an impact on me and the entire day out on the streets.

As with any day, we go from location to location and share with each other different experiences we had with the various people on the streets. At the first stop, Peachtree and Pine, Durga had met a man named Dave. She asked him how he ended up on the streets. He responded "from drugs." He told her that he lost his job because he couldn't get to work because he was too messed up from drugs. She then asked him does he see himself getting off of the streets in the future. He said "with God's help I can." He told her that he learned about God from the bible and knows that God is helping because he was able to turn down a bag of drugs today. Another story that Durga shared with us was about a man at Woodruff Park. She climbed into "Big Red" and asked us if we knew John Wayne. We all paused and said ... well yeah . Not knowing she was talking about one of the guys out on the streets, we all cracked up. Anyway, Durga asked him where he was on that really cold day we had, when the temperature was nine degrees. He told her that he was in jail. He had been arrested for a past warrant. He'd been out for only a week. She then asked him if he's got any work lined up. He told her that next week he had a job to go to. All of his things were gone,stolen when he got out of jail. He wasn't all that discouraged, he said that God's looking after him. With that, Durga pointed to Ma's name on the lunch bag and said,"so is Ma."

The reason I feel so moved to talk about Durga, is that for some reason I was so affected by her realness. People have been telling me their experiences and I've had my own, but today I saw the true depths of being real. For me, sometimes I stay a bit shallow...not too deep when I'm out there with the guys. I sometimes don't want to talk and ask questions about their condition of being homeless. I want to talk about other things. But really, it's where they are and in most cases they want to talk about what's going on for them. I believe during those fearful times for me...I'm hanging out in my small self. There's no room for that in Seva! Seva is about climbing out of ones small self. I've been working hard at going deeper in my other relations, and haven't been so much out on the streets. I can really see that's it's not hard to do, not frightening. So not only can I just love them, I can find out more about them. There was so much beauty in Durga serving out on the streets today. Such unconditional love and kindness. She was a true picture and example of Seva.

When I told her that I was so affected by her, she said that she just really wants to know how something like this could happen to someone. She said that she couldn't imagine what it would be like to try to live out in the streets.

Forever gratful to serve in the name of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati,
Sadhu Bhagavati